BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Many patients with cannabis use disorder (CUD) do not achieve or do not have abstinence as a goal of treatment, rather they reduce their use. Assessing outcome measures as they relate to functioning and reductions in cannabis use is an important area of study. Quality of life (QoL) shows promise as one such measure. Past studies have demonstrated gender differences in QoL and CUD. We aim to assess (1) the relationship between cannabis use and QoL and (2) gender effects in an outpatient medication treatment study for CUD...

CRISPR-Cas technology has revolutionized genome engineering. While Cas9 was not the first programmable endonuclease identified, its simplicity of use has driven widespread adoption in a short period of time. While CRISPR-Cas genome editing holds enormous potential for clinical applications, its use in laboratory settings for genotype-phenotype studies and genome-wide screens has led to breakthroughs in the understanding of many molecular pathways. Numerous protocols have been described for introducing CRISPR-Cas components into cells, and here we sought to simplify and optimize a protocol for genome editing using readily available and inexpensive tools...

KEY POINTS: Activation of the shoulder abductor muscles in the arm opposite a unilateral brain injury causes involuntary increases in elbow, wrist and finger flexion in the same arm, a phenomenon referred to as the flexion synergy. It has been proposed that flexion synergy expression is related to reduced output from ipsilesional motor cortex and corticospinal pathways. In this human subjects study, we provide evidence that the magnitude of flexion synergy expression is instead related to a progressive, task-dependent recruitment of contralesional cortex...

BACKGROUND: People with an intellectual (learning) disability (ID) and epilepsy have an increased seizure frequency, higher frequencies of multiple antiepileptic drug (AED) use and side effects, higher treatment costs, higher mortality rates and more behavioural problems than the rest of the population with epilepsy. The introduction of nurse-led care may lead to improvements in outcome for those with an ID and epilepsy; however, this has not been tested in a definitive clinical trial...

Dusky thrush complex comprises of two sister species breeding in SC Siberia, which is the member of thrush Turdus from Turdidae. The phylogenetic resolution of Dusky thrush complex remains controversial, and a detailed research is still necessary. In this research, we determined the complete mtDNAs of both species, and estimated phylogenetic trees based on the mtDNA alignment of these and 21 other Turdidae species, to clarify the taxa status of the Dusky thrush complex. The squenced lengths of these three mitochondrial genomes were 16,737, 16,788 and 16,750 bp...

Alcohol intoxication may affect self-reports of alcohol use and related constructs, such as impulsivity and dependence symptoms. Improved knowledge about potential systematic reporting biases induced by alcohol, e.g. through disinhibition, may be relevant for the assessment of intoxicated individuals both in clinical routine and research. We therefore randomly assigned 54 socially drinking males aged 18 to 19 without lifetime diagnosis of DSM-IV alcohol dependence to one of two experimental arms: either placebo infusion at day 1 and alcohol infusion at day 2, or vice versa...

Bacteria and bacteriophages arm themselves with various defensive and counterdefensive mechanisms to protect their own genome and degrade the other's. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-Cas (CRISPR-associated) is an adaptive bacterial defense mechanism that recognizes short stretches of invading phage genome and destroys it by nuclease attack. Unexpectedly, we discovered that the CRISPR-Cas system might also accelerate phage evolution. When Escherichia coli bacteria containing CRISPR-Cas9 were infected with phage T4, its cytosine hydroxymethylated and glucosylated genome was cleaved poorly by Cas9 nuclease, but the continuing CRISPR-Cas9 pressure led to rapid evolution of mutants that accumulated even by the time a single plaque was formed...

Background: The Nihon Kohden linear inflationary non-invasive blood pressure (iNIBP) monitoring technology is an oscillometric device that measures blood pressure by detecting oscillations during inflation. Systolic blood pressure can be recorded without overinflating the cuff higher than the true systolic pressure. Thus, total time taken for inflation and deflation is shorter than that by the conventional deflation devices. In this study, the ability of iNIBP to detect maternal hypotension during cesarean section faster than deflationary non-invasive blood pressure (dNIBP) monitoring devices under clinical settings was evaluated prospectively...

Background: Unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) alters the expression of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) components and angiotensin 1-7 (Ang 1-7) as a main arm of RAS is affected by UUO. The role of Mas receptor antagonist (A779) was examined in renal hemodynamic responses to Ang 1-7 in 3-day UUO and UUO removal (RUUO) in rats. Materials and Methods: Forty-five male Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups of sham operated, UUO, and RUUO, while each group was divided into two subgroups treated with vehicle or A779...

Essential tremor (ET) is a neurological disorder characterized by rhythmic, involuntary shaking of a part or parts of the body. The most common tremor is seen in the hands/arms and fingers. This paper presents an evaluation of ETs monitoring based on finger-to-nose test measurement as captured by small wireless devices working in shortwave or [Formula: see text]-band frequency range. The acquired signals in terms of amplitude and phase information are used to detect a tremor in the hands. Linearly transforming raw phase data acquired in the [Formula: see text]-band were carried out for calibrating the phase information and to improve accuracy...

Background: Weight management in pregnancy guidelines exist, although dissemination alone is an ineffective means of implementation. Midwives identify the need for support to overcome complex barriers to practice. An evaluation of an intervention to support midwives' guideline implementation would require a large-scale cluster randomised controlled trial. A pilot study is necessary to explore the feasibility of delivery and evaluation prior to a definitive trial. The GestationaL Obesity Weight management: Implementation of National Guidelines (GLOWING) trial aims to test whether it is feasible and acceptable to deliver a behaviour change intervention to support midwives' implementation of weight management guidelines...

Background: Medically unexplained loss or alteration of voice-functional dysphonia-is the commonest presentation to speech and language therapists (SLTs). Besides the impact on personal and work life, functional dysphonia is also associated with increased levels of anxiety and depression and poor general health. Voice therapy delivered by SLTs improves voice but not these associated symptoms. The aims of this research were the systematic development of a complex intervention to improve the treatment of functional dysphonia, and the trialling of this intervention for feasibility and acceptability to SLTs and patients in a randomised pilot study...

Background: U6 promoters have been used for single guide RNA (sgRNA) transcription in the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas9) genome editing system. However, no available U6 promoters have been identified in Aspergillus niger, which is an important industrial platform for organic acid and protein production. Two CRISPR/Cas9 systems established in A. niger have recourse to the RNA polymerase II promoter or in vitro transcription for sgRNA synthesis, but these approaches generally increase cloning efforts and genetic manipulation...

Background: The Scapholunate Interosseous Ligament (SLIL) is the first intrinsic carpal ligament to be injured in wrist trauma, present in up to 64% of the distal radius fractures. However, it remains unclear what patients develop symptoms, making primary treatment of these injuries accompanying distal radius fractures remains questionable. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional outcomes of patients with scapholunate diastasis associated with distal radius fractures...

Chromosomal abnormalities are often identified in people with neurodevelopmental disorders including intellectual disability, autism, and epilepsy. Ring chromosomes, which usually involve gene copy number loss, are formed by fusion of subtelomeric or telomeric chromosomal regions. Some ring chromosomes, including ring 14, 17, and 20, are strongly associated with seizure disorders. We report an individual with a ring chromosome 17, r(17)(p13.3q25.3), with a terminal 17q25.3 deletion and no short arm copy number loss, and with a phenotype characterized by intellectual disability and drug-resistant epilepsy, including a propensity for nonconvulsive status epilepticus...

Reported here is the case of a 1.8-year-old boy with a 9.6- Mb deletion in 6q13q14.1 and an 11.2-Mb deletion in 6q21q22.31, ascertained through array CGH, as the result of a complex de novo chromosome rearrangement. The clinical picture of this patient is characterized by severe psychomotor delay, dysmorphic features, and some congenital defects. Although, as reported in the literature, phenotypes associated with 6q deletions may vary, an attempt was made to associate the patient's symptoms to either deletion, comparing them to previously reported cases...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPC) of the upper arm on protection from cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury following primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). MATERIAL AND METHODS Eighty patients with STEMI were randomized into two groups: primary PCI (N=44) and primary PCI+RIPC (N=36). RIPC consisted of four cycles of 5 minutes of occlusion and five minutes of reperfusion by cuff inflation and deflation of the upper arm, commencing within one minute of the first PCI balloon dilatation...

BACKGROUND: The shoulder complex is highly loaded during swimming. No studies were found analyzing the changes in shoulder girdle strength in young swimmers, through the years. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the changes in strength of internal rotators and external rotators of the arm, lower trapezius and supraspinatus and in the external rotators/internal rotators ratio in young elite swimmers through 3 years. METHODS: 31 adolescent elite swimmers (14-18 years, of both sexes) participated in the study...

Covert motor learning can sometimes transfer to overt behavior. We investigated the neural mechanism underlying transfer by constructing a two-context paradigm. Subjects performed cursor movements either overtly using arm movements, or covertly via a brain-machine interface that moves the cursor based on motor cortical activity (in lieu of arm movement). These tasks helped evaluate whether and how cortical changes resulting from "covert rehearsal" affect overt performance. We found that covert learning indeed transfers to overt performance and is accompanied by systematic population-level changes in motor preparatory activity...